Okay, so it’s not going to happen. But we’ll wager you were unaware that the Republican ticket was this close to being two seasoned veterans of wondrous Ontario summers.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (L) and U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) help load a truck with relief supplies that will be delivered to storm affected areas in New Jersey during a Kettering Storm Relief event on Oct. 30 in Kettering, Ohio.

But we’ll wager you were unaware that Romney’s almost-running-mate, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, also knows his way around Ontari-airy-airy-oh. One of our spies in Cincinnati, a close childhood friend of Portman, told the Toronto Star of “some serious summer camping and canoeing in Temagami” during their teen years.

Portman, you may recall, was short-listed as a possible Romney running mate, eventually losing out to Paul Ryan for the VP slot. But Portman nevertheless went on to serve the Romney campaign especially well, playing the role of Barack Obama during Romney’s debate preparations.

The what-ifs are especially interesting now that Ohio has emerged as the most closely fought battleground in the race for the White House. Would the presence of a native son on the GOP ticket have made the difference, swinging Ohio — and perhaps the White House — to Romney?

Ohio, it should be noted, is a strange state, politically speaking — it tends to lean Republican, but we’re talking Republicanism of the northern, moderate variety. The Tea Party doesn’t have much of a foothold and Portman is well liked by the state’s GOP faithful for that very reason — he hews to the path of his un-extreme conservative Ohioan forebears.

Now 57, Portman is regarded as a rising Republican star whose name will routinely arise when the party goes shopping for its next batch of prospects in 2016 or beyond. And in the off-chance Romney does actually win, Portman would among the front-rank candidates for a senior cabinet position.

Which one? We’d humbly suggest Homeland Security. However you might view a Romney government, we like the idea that of next top border gatekeeper, when he or she thinks of the Canada, thinks first of canoes, not terrorists.